RockYouhttp://www.businessinsider.com/category/rockyou
en-usFri, 09 Dec 2016 09:26:16 -0500Fri, 09 Dec 2016 09:26:16 -0500The latest news on RockYou from Business Insiderhttp://static3.businessinsider.com/assets/images/bilogo-250x36-wide-rev.pngBusiness Insiderhttp://www.businessinsider.com
http://www.businessinsider.com/rockyou-goes-after-zyngas-latest-blockbuster-2011-7RockYou Goes After Zynga's Latest Blockbusterhttp://www.businessinsider.com/rockyou-goes-after-zyngas-latest-blockbuster-2011-7
Sun, 03 Jul 2011 16:23:19 -0400Pascal-Emmanuel Gobry
<p><img style="float:right;" src="http://static3.businessinsider.com/image/4b3cb9ed0000000000ce267c-400-/rockyou-zoo-world.jpg" border="0" alt="RockYou Zoo World" width="400" /></p><p>RockYou, a maker of popular Facebook widgets, looks like it's coming out with a game called Galactic Allies, probably an outer-space version of Zynga's strategy game Empires and Allies.&nbsp;</p>
<p>A domain name registration by RockYou was spotted by the eagle eyes <a href="http://fusible.com/2011/07/rockyou-wants-to-compete-with-zynga-with-its-newest-domain-registration-galacticallies-com/">over at Fusible.com</a>.</p>
<p>With Zynga's IPO, there's no question that social gaming is really hot these days. When Zynga came out with Empires &amp; Allies, there was some question as to whether a strategy game would work on Facebook. By one measure at least--imitation--it seems to be.</p>
<p><strong>Don't Miss: <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/zynga-ipo-filing-2011-7">The Most Stunning Thing About The Zynga IPO&nbsp;&rarr;</a></strong></p><p><a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/rockyou-goes-after-zyngas-latest-blockbuster-2011-7#comments">Join the conversation about this story &#187;</a></p> http://www.businessinsider.com/business-plans-are-always-wrong-2010-8Pre-Launch Business Plans Are Always Wronghttp://www.businessinsider.com/business-plans-are-always-wrong-2010-8
Tue, 03 Aug 2010 10:34:22 -0400Josh Kopelman
<p>As a seed-stage investor, <a href="http://www.firstround.com/">First Round Capital </a>typically funds powerpoints.&nbsp; Not only are the majority of our investments pre-revenue, but most of the time we are investing in pre-launch companies.&nbsp; While these companies might have an alpha/beta version of their site, it's usually early enough that we can&rsquo;t base our investment decision off of any market traction.&nbsp; Instead, we typically make our investment decisions based on three key areas:&nbsp; the size of the market, the strength of the team, and the product vision.&nbsp; &nbsp;This is often made even more difficult by the fact that we know that many of the businesses we fund end up with (one or more) pivots -- since their <a href="http://redeye.firstround.com/2006/10/your_business_p.html">business plan is always wrong</a>.&nbsp;</p>
<p><strong>The Team</strong><strong><img style="float:right;" src="http://static1.businessinsider.com/image/4c5826987f8b9ac62b5a0300/missile.jpg" border="0" alt="Missile" /></strong></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText">I've lately started to realize that our most successful companies are led by entrepreneurs who have a unique talent -- they are <em>heat seeking missiles.</em>&nbsp; It doesn't matter where the missile is aimed pre-launch.&nbsp; Successful entrepreneurs are constantly collecting data -- and constantly looking for bigger and better targets, adjusting course if necessary.&nbsp; And when they find their target, they're able to lock-onto it -- regardless of how crowded the space becomes.&nbsp;</p>
<p class="MsoPlainText">When <a href="http://www.invitemedia.com/about_us/management.shtml">Nat and Zach</a> first came to us with the idea for <a href="http://www.invitemedia.com/">Invite Media</a>, it was focused on algorithms for ad targeting.&nbsp; But once they got into the market the team saw a bigger opportunity -- the DSP space -- and they locked-onto that target with <a href="http://nothingtosay.firstround.com/2010/06/invitemediagoogle.html">a successful outcome</a>.&nbsp; We funded <a href="http://www.videoegg.com/">VideoEgg</a> back in 2005 with the goal of creating tools to manage online video -- but <a href="http://www.videoegg.com/about/">Matt</a> and team quickly adjusted course and have now become a leading media network for brand advertisers.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; When we first met <a href="http://www.rockyou.com/corp/management.php">Lance and Jia</a> in 2006, they had a cool photo-hosting application called RockMySpace -- but they quickly found&nbsp; the opportunity was much larger than photo-hosting, and <a href="http://www.rockyou.com/corp/about.php">RockYou</a> has since became a leading provider of social networking and gaming applications.</p>
<p class="MsoPlainText"><strong>Market</strong></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText">Markets really matter.&nbsp; Because the bigger the market, the more targets there are for the missile to hit.&nbsp; I've seen many companies fail to reach their potential because -- despite the skill of the founders -- they ultimately realize that there just aren't enough (or any) big targets for them to lock-onto.&nbsp; It's really hard to start a company -- and there are so many risks that all startups share, regardless of market size.&nbsp; Whether you're targeting a $10M addressable market or a $1B addressable market, you're still going to face Hiring Risk, Marketing Risk, Competitive Risk, Technology Risk, and&nbsp; Financing Risk.&nbsp;&nbsp; And while bigger markets might pose more challenges than smaller markets, the risks involved in targetting a $1B market are not 100x greater than those involved in $10M market.&nbsp; Choosing the right market is critical, because the market you choose determines the targets that are available for the heat-seeking missile to hit.</p>
<p class="MsoPlainText">Sometimes entrepreneurs (like <a href="http://www.mint.com/company/">Aaron</a>) will have such a strong sense of the market that their initial product plan is dead-on.&nbsp; But most of the time we see the product iterate and morph over time.&nbsp; As a result, product is often the hardest thing to evaluate pre-launch.&nbsp;&nbsp; And some of our biggest mistakes have occurred when we passed on companies based on their pre-launch product.&nbsp; So today we tend to focus on a company's product <em>vision</em>, rather than on the specific <em>implementation</em> of a pre-launch product.&nbsp; We've also found that a pre-launch product plan is a great way for us to get additional input on the team.&nbsp; Have they studied the competition?&nbsp; Do they really understand how to leverage social networks, game mechanics, etc?&nbsp; Do they have a data-driven philosophy or a gut-driven philosophy.&nbsp; Why did they make the choices they made?</p>
<p>At the end of the day, I've really come to believe that you can't predict success based on where a missile is pointed pre-launch.&nbsp; Instead you have to assess the quality of the targeting system (the team) and the density/size of targets (the market). &nbsp; And hope that the missile you launch finds a true target -- rather than a decoy...</p><p><a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/business-plans-are-always-wrong-2010-8#comments">Join the conversation about this story &#187;</a></p>